I think looking at this subverse compared to to /r/dota2 there's a pretty big difference in terms of activity, but also a really exciting opportunity to build a great community around a game we love! I'd love to try and get a bit more discussion going on within the subverse and am wondering what kind of stuff people would want to chat about?

Esports (with the International coming up). We could have 'team discussions' and that kind of thing going on?
Hero discussions about how you play heroes and what roles they're best suited to?

I think discussing the TI teams would be great, but you don't want to discuss them one at a time when there really aren't that many people here (maybe discuss by region? or western/eastern invites and qualifiers?). Also I think having a daily "This just happened in my game today" discussion/post would be helpful for those times when you just want to share something but doesn't warrant a full post.

Also we should probably decide whether we want custom games to be part of this subverse or another, I'm all for keeping custom games discussion here while the subverse isn't that popular

I definitely agree, the /r/truedota2 and/or the learnDota2 styles of shitposts being unwelcome is the best, I much rather enjoy actual discussion about playing, but seeing some new artwork, or sets is also very nice. The constant shoutout threads, stupid memes, and pro stalking was very offputting. I rarely went on r/dota2, preferring to stay on true/learndota2 because it had better content, but i missed some of the discussions on teams and their chances and strategies in the pro scene

I try to think of this subverse as a town square to a network of stores or subverses that reside in the town design. We can build a solid network of subverses for specific content and maybe take weekly review of content from those groups or take a poll of content to focus on week by week? There are a bunch of different ways this could evolve which makes it really fun and inviting.

My favorite thing on the subreddit was the hero discussion, I got some cool builds out of that and got better at a few heros (keep in mind that it was normally only a few comments that were helpful and not the typical circlejerk). Other than that, the fluff needs to not be the number one priority...it was always in the front of that subreddit.

One problem I found with trying to discuss anything on /r/dota2 was that, you were down voted for having a different opinion on how to play certain heroes or their level build/items from what was generally accepted. The only way people accepted new ideas was if pros did it, or a decent streamer. I would personally have loved /r/dota2 if it didn't have down votes, I just don't see the point in them. Every opinion should be visible. If someone has an idea you don't agree with, counter it or ignore, down votes in my opinion kill any decent discussion and just promote a circle jerk.

I think the issue is (as always on reddit to be honest) that downvotes aren't used correctly.

There is a place for them when people say stuff that is actually wrong. E.g. 'X spell pierces spell immunity' when it doesn't. But for the most part they should be used to encourage creative discussion and I guess the best way you can be doing that is being really generous with your upvotes and making sure anything people say (even if you disagree personally) is given adequate visibility. Though even that I'd have to say should have limitations. Like I don't know if I'd want to upvote a post that was saying 'Support Riki is really viable because you can always provide vision for your team with your invisibility' because that is just stupid...